Ken Hall pointed out
that, although he did not have a problem with what the board was doing, the
board was making motions on items not on the agenda.

The board thanked Ken
Hall for pointing that out.† The motion
to use the executive committee as Winnefox members on the search committee was
nullified.† President Malueg will appoint
members to the search committee.†

Motion to table the WPLC
Overdrive Digital Audio Book Demonstration as contained in Exhibit E until the
board gets more information and an opinion from council regarding copywrite
laws. Motion: Reiland; Second: Rosser; Vote: Unanimous.

Request for Future
Agenda Items

≠Widener
requested detailed information about the Omro/Winneconne Non-Reciprocal
Payments be made available at the next meeting.†
A request for the directors of Omro and Winneconne Public Libraries to
attend the meeting was also made.†

Passing
out the hats as it appeared in the last meeting that some were wearing hats
from another organization.Let us all be sure that we are wearing our Winnefox
hat as we go into these discussions.

I
feel badly that a simple question as to whether we should take the opportunity
to examine a different organization with the Winnefox Directorís retirement has
degenerated into a debate over how the organization has operated in the past.

That
was, and is not, the point.† Early
correspondence went out of the way to praise the past and present operation of
Winnefox.† Who would of thought that
would be turned into the issue.

I
have twenty some pages of response to a survey that completely missed the
point.

The
point is:

Would
Winnefox be better off, in the future, with itís own director?

A
Little Background

If
we were meeting today as a new Board to form a system, what would we do?

As
suggested by Trustee Woldt, we would look at the past, or at least what else is
happening.

We
would look at how other systems were organized, and would discover that 14 of
the 16 had an independent Director for the system, eight had started with an
independent Director, and that 6 of the systems had changed from a resource
library combination to an independent Director and that none had switched from
an independent to a shared Director.†
That history would certainly enter into our consideration.

I
had a conversation with the Director of the Lacrosse Library, according to her,
approximately the size of the Oshkosh Library.†
La Crosse
is the resource library for the Winding Rivers System, a system comparable, but
somewhat smaller than Winnefox.† Winding
Rivers started with a combination Director, but now has a separate
Director.† It is working well, according
to the La Crosse Director.† She said, in
her words, ď she would screamĒ if something happened to the Winding Rivers
Director, and she were asked do the combined job.†

She
indicated that there was no way she could do justice to both jobs!

That
is what Winnefox will face with a NEW, not the existing, combination Director.

Upside

Trustee
Willadson commented in the last meeting that the upside of separate Directors
had not been addressed, a fair comment.

The
upside for Winnefox, and particularly itís smaller libraries, is quite simple:

A
100% Winnefox director with the prime responsibility to the 30 libraries in the
system, as opposed to a 20% Director with prime responsibility to the Oshkosh
Public Library.

Downside

Are
there downsides to a separate Director?

Letís
look at a couple of those discussed in the last meeting;

Donít
fix it if it ainít broke

There
is always fear of the unknown, in this case change. But we must realize that a
new Director, or Directors, is going to bring change.† Change happens in all organizations, despite
the existence of policies and procedures.†
Change is happening in WinnebagoCounty with a new Executive.† A new judge can even create change in the
judiciary.† Change will happen in
Winnefox; change will happen in the Oshkosh Public Library.

Possible
increase in cost.† This is an area of
concern, particularly to the smaller libraries

Winnefox
presently has an assistant Director at $ 75,000, plus about $23,000 to OPL and
$7000 as a consultant for the existing Director; so the cost for a separate
Director is essentially equal.

This
is reasonably compatible with other projections, although the present Winnefox
Director includes a Field Services Librarian†
in the proposed Winnefox organization. That position has been vacant
since 2002, and was eliminated in 2003, so I question why it would be necessary
in the future.

Other
costs are now contracted with the Oshkosh Public Library, so even with minor
adjustments, the cost impact is negligible.

Winnefox
has a budget of about 1.4 million, after Countypassthrough.† So even if costs would go up slightly, it
would have no impact on Library costs.

I
know that this was a little long, and I appreciate your indulgence.

Hopefully
this information will aid in your understanding of the issue at hand Ė Should
Winnefox have itís own dedicated Director.†

What
is best for Winnefox?† ††

The
summary was not read Ė comments were similar, however

Summary

The
decision that we make today will influence the libraries in the Winnefox System
for many years.† We can move forward and
build on the excellent base that has been built over the past years.† Donít confuse what has happened in the past
with what can happen in the future.† This
is an opportunity to improve service to all libraries in the Winnefox System

Letís
not waste it

Attachment
2

The Board of
Trustees of the Oshkosh Public Library would like to join the Winnefox Board in
thanking John Nichols for his years of service and professionalism. His term at
the Oshkosh Public Library and the Winnefox Library System has been years of
great change in libraries and broad expansion of library services.† His foresight and steady leadership have made
both the system and all the member libraries strong and healthy.

It is the
unanimous desire of the Oshkosh Board that the two directorships remain
combined.† Because we believe the
partnership between the Winnefox Library System and the Oshkosh Public Library
is so valuable, the Oshkosh Public Library Board requests that theWinnefox Library System Board join us
in a joint search for a new director.††
Our desire is that we find the best possible director, one that both the
system and the library can embrace and welcome with enthusiasm.† We believe that the process of seeking a
common director will be an exercise that will continue the trust and goodwill
that exists between the two boards.

Although John's retirement is a logical time to consider restructuring the
administration of both organizations, we of the OPL Board, considering this
history of good will and harmony, believe it is wise to keep the positions
together.† The combination of these
positions has a long and successful track record.† It seems unwise to split the positions, given
this history.† The phrase ďIf it ain't
broke, don't fix itĒ springs to mind.† We
believe that if the positions are split, they will never be reunited.

Part of the reason for the
systemís health and vitality has been one directorís ability to create
synergies between the individual libraries and the system, to act for their
mutual benefit. While the appearance of conflicts of interest has been possible
the entire time these two positions have been combined, we have not heard a
single instance of WLS or OPL suffering because of an actual conflict of
interest. Rather, we see repeated occasions when the interests of both entities
have been well served by "coincidences of interest," which the current
director has been able to exploit.

In a
climate of shrinking tax dollars available to cities and counties to support
libraries, it seems unwise to split the position and thereby increase the
amount of tax dollars spent on library administration. Governments at all
levels are seeking ways to create efficiencies and combine services to make tax
dollars go farther. Splitting the positions would go against this tide of
increasing cooperation among units of government.

The Oshkosh Board believes both OPL & Winnefox, have been good stewards of
the public's tax dollars all of the years the positions have been combined.
Should the Winnefox Board decide it best to seek their own director, they will
need to be ready and able to articulate and defend this position to the
taxpayers.

Our analysis
estimates that the Winnefox Library System would increase their annual
operating costs for library administration by around $26,000 in 2006 if the
position were split.† It appears that the
Oshkosh Public Libraryís operating costs would increase about

$36,500 in
2006.† This includes an increased cost
for marketing.† [Please see the
accompanying papers.]

While it is the strong desire of the Oshkosh Public Library Board for the
positions to remain combined, indeed we've heard nothing to indicate the
current structure needs any improvement, nor have we heard any potential
"upside" that could be
realized by splitting the positions, we realize that we cannot make this
decision unilaterally.

If Winnefox's Board feels it best to seek their own director, we will abide
by that decision and seek a director for OPL independently.† We appreciate the commitment the system board
made at its May 10 meeting to reach a decision May 25.†† However, it is the unanimous desire of the
Oshkosh Board of Trustees that the two directorships remain combined.† We hope that the Winnefox Board will join us
in finding a new director that will successfully guide our system and our
member libraries into the challenges of the future.

We thank you for your
consideration of this matter and we look forward to working with you to our
mutual benefit.